HERE ARE THE DETAILS AS WE KNOW THEM.The flight came down early on Saturday, shortly after leaving Sharm el-Sheikh for the Russian city of St Petersburg. Initial reports from Egypt said the pilot of the Kogalymavia airline had asked to make an emergency landing.

But minister Hossam Kamal said there had been no sign of any problems on board the flight.

Egyptian officials had said 214 of the passengers were Russian and three Ukrainian, but Russian officials said at least one of the victims was from Belarus.

On Saturday morning, Egyptian aviation official Ayman el-Mokadem, who the country's media say is heading an investigation into the crash, said flight KGL9268 had asked to land early because of a technical failure.

But Mr Kamal told a press conference this was not the case.

"Up until the crash happened, we were never informed of any faults in the plane, nor did we receive any SOS calls," he said.

All contact with air traffic control had been normal, and pre-flight checks showed no problems, he added.

The office of Egypt's prime minister said 129 bodies had so far been recovered and were taken to Cairo.

One un-named official described a "tragic scene" ...saying the plane appeared to have split in two, he told Reuters, with one part burning up and the other crashing into a rock.The Airbus A321, operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia under the brand name Metrojet, was flying from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg in Russia when it went down in central Sinai soon after daybreak, the aviation ministry said.

A spokeswoman for the airline says the pilot was experienced, the Airbus plane had been through all its safety checks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared Sunday a day of mourning.

He has ordered an official investigation into the crash, and a commission headed by Mr Sokolov left for Egypt on Saturday afternoon.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi promised President Putin he would allow Russian experts to join the investigation.

The Russian A321’s black box recorded an unclear noise before crashing in Sinai, the head of Egypt’s investigation committee has confirmed. However, spectral analysis is required to determine its nature.The head of the Investigations Committee, Captain Ayman Mokadem, said the nature of debris scatter suggests an in-flight break up, but it is still too early to draw conclusions on the causes of the crash. While both flight data recorders have been found, the investigators are still studying them.According to the flight data recorders, the incident occurred 23 minutes and 14 seconds after takeoff at an altitude of 30,888 feet in climbing mode, at a speed of 281 knots, autopilot engaged, he said. Access to the crash site has been impeded by bad weather since Tuesday.The investigation has established that the pattern of the debris scattered over a wide area of more than 13 kilometers, while not all parts of the plane have yet been found.On Tuesday, media reported that a US infrared satellite had detected a heat flash in the same vicinity, indicating that an explosion may have occurred on board.Ayman el Mokadem says there are 47 investigators into Metrojet crash - 29 from Egypt, 7 Russia, France 6, Germany 2 , Ireland 3 .
WE MUST WAIT AND SEE WHAT RUSSIA FINDS.There are no words of comfort in such a time.

Nothing anyone can say alleviates the grief and pain of loss.

So, all I can do is send to Russia, with love, deepest sympathy and to say that many tears fall here are for you all, the families and other loved ones of these victims,

Friday, October 30, 2015

CHINA HAS OPENLY AND QUITE BLUNTLY WARNED AMERICA THAT ONE MORE MINORINCIDENT LIKE THE CONFRONTATION THE OTHER DAY IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA WILL MEAN WAR.SHOULD WE BELIEVE THEM?

AS REUTERS REPORTED:"China's naval commander told his U.S. counterpart that a minor incident could spark war in the South China Sea if the United States did not stop its "provocative acts" in the disputed waterway.Admiral Wu Shengli made the comments to U.S. chief of naval operations Admiral John Richardson during a video teleconference on Thursday.

China has rebuked Washington over the patrol, the most significant U.S. challenge yet to territorial limits China effectively claims around its seven artificial islands in one of the world's busiest sea lanes.

"If the United States continues with these kinds of dangerous, provocative acts, there could well be a seriously pressing situation between frontline forces from both sides on the sea and in the air, or even a minor incident that sparks war," the statement paraphrased Wu as saying.

"(I) hope the U.S. side cherishes the good situation between the Chinese and U.S. navies that has not come easily and avoids these kinds of incidents from happening again," Wu said.

Speaking earlier, a U.S. official said the naval chiefs agreed to maintain dialogue and follow protocols to avoid clashes.

A U.S. Navy spokesman stressed Washington's position that U.S. freedom of navigation operations were meant to "protect the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all nations under international law".

Chinese warships followed the USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, as it moved through the Spratlys on Tuesday. The U.S. Navy is operating in a maritime domain bristling with Chinese ships."

BUT IS CHINA SERIOUS?

MANY BELIEVE CHINA IS "DEADLY SERIOUS".

THE GUARDIAN U.K. WROTE: "China is not afraid of fighting a war against the United States in the South China Sea, a state-run newspaper with links to the Communist party has claimed.

“In [the] face of the US harassment, Beijing should deal with Washington tactfully and prepare for the worst,” the newspaper argued in an editorialon Wednesday.

“This can convince the White House that China, despite its unwillingness, is not frightened to fight a war with the US in the region, and is determined to safeguard its national interests and dignity.”

ThePeople’s Liberation Army Daily, China’s leading military newspaper, used a front-page editorial to accuse the US of sowing chaos in countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Cast-iron facts show that time and again the United States recklessly uses force and starts wars, stirring things up where once there was stability, causing the bitterest of harm to those countries directly involved,” the newspaper said."

AND HOW DID AMERICA RESPOND?SABER-RATTLING...

"US defence secretary Ash Carter warned that further “freedom of navigation” operations in the region were planned. “We will fly, sail and operate wherever international law permits,” he told a congressional hearing.

Lu Kang, a foreign ministry spokesperson, said China would “resolutely respond” to any deliberate provocations but declined to be drawn on any potential military response.

“I advise the US not to make a fool out of themselves in trying to be smart,” Lu said."

Ashley Townshend, a South China Sea expert from the University of Sydney’s United States studies centre, warned that sending US warships to the South China Sea could have the opposite effect the U.S. intended.

“I think these freedom of navigation missions may play into the hands of the hardliners in the [Chinese] military or in the regime … It will be harder for moderates in the regime to say no to People’s Liberation Army hawks and others if the Americans are [seen as] being provocative.”

Townshend said the US mission may have temporarily strengthened Washington’s hand. “[But] there’s an element of you win the battle but you lose the war if actually these freedom of navigation missions make China more determined to militarise these islands,” he added."

CHINA HAS LAID CLAIM TO TERRITORY IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA THAT NOT ONLY INDONESIA, BUT ALSO THE PHILIPPINES, MALAYSIA, BRUNEI, TAIWAN AND VIETNAM HAVE CLAIMED FOR QUITE SOME TIME.

THE MAP BELOW BY GLOBAL SECURITY BARELY TOUCHES ON THOSE LONG-RUNNING CONFLICTS.

ONE MAY READ ALL ABOUT THIS ONGOING CONFLICT BETWEEN ALL CLAIMANT NATIONS<HERE>.IT IS, SUPPOSEDLY, AN OIL RICH SECTION OF THAT SEA.CHINA DESPERATELY NEEDS MORE OIL.

"In 1909 CHINA seized some islands in Xisha (the Paracels). In 1946 it seized Itu Aba (in the Spratlys) and Phu Lan Island (in the Paracels). In 1950's China seized additional Hoang Sa (Paracels) islands, which it forcibly repeated in 1974. Vietnam claims that these acts were unlawful and that the United States in 1974 conspired with China for the takeover of the Paracels.

In January 1974, Chinese military units seized islands in the Paracels occupied by South Vietnamese armed forces, and Beijing claimed sovereignty over the Spratlys. Following their conquest of South Vietnam in the spring of 1975, units of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) nevertheless moved to occupy the Spratly Islands previously held by the Saigon regime. In 1978 Vietnam and the Philippines agreed to negotiate but failed to settle their conflicting claims to the Spratly Islands. "

PREVIOUS CONFRONTATIONS WITH CHINA IS CITED AS THE REASON JAPAN HAS STARTED REBUILDING ITS MILITARY, HAS MENTIONED ACQUIRING NUCLEAR CAPABILITY, AND ALSO ASKED THE U.S. TO INTERVENE, AS THE TEA ROOM REPORTED EXTENSIVELY <HERE>.

ISN'T IT VERY ODD THAT OUR POTUS, OBAMA, HAS DECIDED TO CONFRONT CHINA, SEND AMERICAN TROOPS, BOOTS-ON-THE-GROUND, INTO SYRIA AGAINST ISIS, HAS DEPLOYED MORE TROOPS TO IRAQ AND IS LEAVING AT LEAST 5,000 IN AFGHANISTAN, ALL CONTRARY TO WHAT HE HAS PREVIOUSLY STATED, ALL AT THE SAME TIME?

ONE WONDERS WHAT HAS SUDDENLY CAUSED SUCH A WILD AND CRAZY SURGE IN MILITANCY AND AGGRESSION FROM OUR OUTGOING PREZ.

BOTTOM LINE, NO MATTER WHAT OBAMA & COMPANY IS THINKING, CHINA SIMPLY DOESN'T CARE IF WE GO TO WAR OR NOT.

IT'S THE PROVERBIAL "SIX OF ONE, HALF A DOZEN OF THE OTHER" SCENARIO FOR CHINA.WHAT'S A NUCLEAR WAR TO SUCH A NATION AS CHINA?

TO CHINESE LEADERS, IT MUST BE AKIN TO ORDERING PIZZA...WITH OR WITHOUT A STUFFED CRUST.

WAR WITH THE USA?SURE...WHY NOT?

DO WE WANT ANCHOVIES WITH THAT?

OUR SABER-RATTLERS REALLY SHOULD STAND BACK AND APPRAISE THIS SITUATION BECAUSE CHINA REALLY DOESN'T CARE IF IT'S ALL-OUT WAR OR NOT.

IN A TRULY UNBELIEVABLE TURN OF EVENTS, SAUDI PRINCE AND MEDIA MOGUL AL-WALEED BIN TALAL bin ABDULAZIZ al SAUD HAS PUBLICLY STATED AND RESTATED THAT HE WILL SIDE WITH ISRAEL IF 'PALESTINIANS' DECLARE A THIRD INTIFADA.“I will side with the Jewish nation and its democratic aspirations in case of outbreak of a Palestinian Intifada (uprising),” bin Talal was quoted as saying by Kuwaiti Al Qabas daily.
OCTOBER 29, 2015“The whole Middle East dispute is tantamount to matter of life and death for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from my vantage point, and I know that Iranians seek to unseat the Saudi regime by playing the Palestinian card, hence to foil their plots Saudi Arabia and Israel must bolster their relations and form a united front to stymie Tehran’s ambitious agenda,” Kuwaiti News Agency (KUNA) reported him as saying on Tuesday.

ALSO REPORTING ON THE PRINCE'S STATEMENTS WAS THE PRO-PALESTINIAN SITE "SHOAH"....OCTOBER 27, 2015” I will side with the Jewish nation and its democratic aspirations in case of outbreak of Palestinian Intifada( uprising) and exert all my influence to break any ominous Arab initiatives set to condemn Tel Aviv , because I deem the Arab-Israeli entente and friendship necessary to impede Iranian encroachment,”Al Qabas cited the Saudi RAT as he touring [SIC] other Persian Gulf Arab littoral states–Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman–to muster support for Saudi-backed Islamist rebels in Syria."SAUDI RAT???GEE, THAT'S HARSH.

AFTER MUCH NEGATIVE PRESS ABOUT HIS "PRO-ISRAELI STATEMENTS", THE PRINCE'S STAFF DENIED HE HAD INDEED SAID HE WOULD SIDE WITH ISRAEL.
HOWEVER, IT IS NOT THE FIRST TIME THE PRINCE HAS MADE IT CLEAR HE WOULD BE WILLING TO ALIGN WITH ISRAEL."This is not the first time Saudi Arabia has made overtures towards Israel in the interest of uniting against Iran. In anticipation of thenuclear dealwhich many believe will give Iran significant leeway towards developing nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia joined Israel in talks discussing a possible joint attack."
PREVIOUSLY, IN FEBRUARY OF THIS YEAR, THE PRINCE HAD PLEDGED SAUDI AIRSPACE FOR ISRAEL TO LAUNCH AN ATTACK AGAINST IRAN.
HE HAS SAID SAUDI ARABIA AND OTHER GULF STATES MUST FORM A DEFENSE PACT WITH ISRAEL TO KEEP IRAN OUT OF THE ONGOING SYRIAN AND YEMEN CRISES IN THE MIDDLE EAST.Feb. 20, 2015SEVERAL Arab nations are expressing their concerns to US officials in private talks over emerging details of the agreement, the Wall Street Journalreported."The report comes amid news that US President Barack Obama will meet with the leader of Qatar, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, to discuss concerns of stability in the Middle East.Arab governments have expressed deep reservations about the ongoing progress in nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 powers—U.S., U.K, France, Russia, China and Germany. Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates have said that any nuclear deal that allows Iran to retain its capacity to enrich uranium—which can be used to produce a nuclear weapon—would likely force them to develop their own nuclear capabilities.

One Arab official told the Wall Street Journal that the Arab states would prefer a collapse of negotiations with Iran over a bad deal, echoing the sentiment of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has heavily opposed the possibility that Iran may retain some aspects of its nuclear program in a deal with world powers.

GCC TO BUY ISRAELI DEFENSE WEAPONS
EARLIER THIS YEAR, SAUDI ARABIA AND OTHERS OF THE GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) APPROACHED THE UNITED STATES TO HELP BROKER A DEAL WITH ISRAEL ON BEHALF OF SAUDI ARABIA AND OTHER GULF STATES TO BUY THE ISRAELI IRON DOME TECHNOLOGY, A DEAL THAT WOULD NET ISRAEL TENS TO HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS.
OCTOBER 14, 2015Sky News Arabia speculated that a deal that would include the entire GCC: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait, could be worth hundreds, of billions of dollars.

A senior Gulf government source told Sky News:“If Netanyahu were not making less of a mess of things and was more like Anwar Sadat (who signed a peace deal for Egypt with Israel) then we would be happy to buy the missiles straight from Israel.”

However, to save the GCC the embarrassment of purchasing a lifeline from the Zionist entity, the US has offered its services in brokering the deal.

The sale of Israeli-developed weapons to a Gulf state, or states, would have been controversial for both the Israelis and the buyers a few years ago.

But both now see one of the main threats to them as the growing military strength and ambitions of Iran.

The US is quietly playing the "middle man" in the deal as a sweetener to bitterness caused in the Gulf over what the leadership in that region believe is a "naive" deal with Iran over its nuclear weapons programme.

"Iran has been trying to undermine and topple government in our region for years," the Bahrain foreign minister said.

He said that Iran's precision missile capacity was certain to increase as a consequence of the lifting of sanctions following the internationally brokered agreement with Tehran to end its nuclear weapons development.

As a Shi'a-Russian crescent of influence is seen spreading across the Middle East so Gulf States have been privately reaching out to the old enemy to Israel.

Now with a potentially massive arms sale, those relations are begin to emerge from the shadows of regional rivalries.

SO, DENY IT OR NOT, THE SAUDIS HAVE BEEN COZYING UP TO ISRAEL, JUST AS OTHER MIDDLE EAST MEDIA HAVE REPORTED, AND THE SAUDI VIEW OF HAMAS-CONTROLLED GAZA IS NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT LOOKS ON THE CURRENT 'PALESTINIAN' DAYS OF RAGE AS A THORN IN THE SIDE OF SLIGHTLY MORE SANE ARAB NATIONS.NONE OF THE GULF STATES ARE WILLING TO SUPPORT ANOTHER STUPID INTIFADA.JORDAN WON'T, NOR WILL EGYPT, OBVIOUSLY.SAUDI ARABIA, JORDAN, KUWAIT, BAHRAIN, THE U.A.E. HAVE ALL BEEN DISTANCING THEMSELVES FROM THE BAT-GUANO INSANE BOYS THAT RUN HAMAS.WHEN THE MANIACS IN GAZA AND THE WEST BANK RESPONDED FAVORABLY TO THE IRAN DEAL, WHAT DID THEY EXPECT BUT THE WRATH OF THE GULF STATES?HOW LONG HAS IRAN BEEN "SUPPORTIVE" OF HAMAS?IRAN AND THE PLO UNDER OLD ARAFAT WERE PRACTICALLY LOVERS UNTIL ABOUT 1980!WELL, THERE WAS ONE GLITCH IN THE PRE-1980s LOVE AFFAIR..."During the 1967 war, Iran provided Palestinian militants with funds and ammunition. However, Palestine, as well as the Arab states, lost the war, and Palestinians asked to seek asylum into Iran. Iran, not intending to mar its relations with Israel, chose not to provide the Palestinian refugees with shelter."THEY WEREN'T THE ONLY ONES WHO WANTED NO "PALESTINIAN REFUGEES", THEN OR NOW.BUT THE SHAH WAS PALS WITH AMERICA, SO HE HAD TO HIDE HIS PRO-PLO SIDE."Aid to Hamas increased after Arafat’s death in 2004 and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. Following the Hamas victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections, foreign aid dried up, leading Tehran to send significant financial aid to support the nearly bankrupt, Hamas led Palestinian National Authority."

ARA-FAT IS DEAD, LET BYGONES BE BYGONES..According to Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority, "Hamas is funded by Iran. It claims it is financed by donations, but the donations are nothing like what it receives from Iran.[ran also supplies Hamas with military weaponry. Technologies provided include Fajr-5, M-75, and M-302 rockets, as well as dronesThe Palestinian Authority (PA) ALSO responds to the Iran deal...BY SUCKING UP TO IRAN...hypocrisy reigns.":PA presidential senior advisor Nabil Abu Rudeineh publicly noted that in this case, Washington went ahead despite Israeli objections. Thus, he contended, the Iran nuclear deal sends "an important message to Israel..."

RIGHT...HERE'S THE MESSAGE...THE GCC IS CHOOSING ISRAEL OVER HAMAS, THE P.A. AND IRAN BECAUSE THEY'VE SEEN WHO WINS THE BATTLES WAGED AGAINST ISRAEL...EVERY TIME.FATAH AGAINST IRAN

As published before, the axis between Israel and the Sunni states, with which it has not fostered diplomatic relations, is growing stronger. The cooperation, exchange of intelligence and policymaking regarding the most effective way to apply pressure on the powers have become almost commonplace."

IF THE GAZAN PEOPLE WANT TO HAVE ANY ALLIES LEFT AMONGST THEIR OIL RICH BROTHERS, THEY REALLY NEED TO DUMP HAMAS ANY WAY THEY CAN.

HAMAS, LIKE ARAFAT, DOESN'T CARE ABOUT GAZA OR ITS PEOPLE.

THEY'RE IN IT FOR THE BIG BUCKS, AND LOOKS LIKE IRAN IS OFFERING A FEW OF THOSE AS CARROTS ON A STICK, SO WE CAN JUST SIT BACK AND WATCH HAMAS RUN AFTER THOSE JUICY CARROTS

AS ALWAYS, HAMAS MADE A BAD DECISION BY CUDDLING UP TO IRAN...NOW THE GULF STATES ARE MAKING THEIR DECISIONS....ISRAEL OVER HAMAS AND THE P.A.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

This article was granted the 2015 Project Censored Award. Ranked No. 5 among the 25 most censored news stories.

"Nuclear radiation resulting from the March 2011 Fukushima disaster –which threatens life on planet earth– is not front page news in comparison to the most insignificant issues of public concern, including the local level crime scene or the tabloid gossip reports on Hollywood celebrities.

The shaky political consensus both in Japan, the U.S. and Western Europe is that the crisis at Fukushima has been contained.

The truth is otherwise. Known and documented, the ongoing dumping of highly radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean constitutes a potential trigger to a process of global radioactive contamination.

This water contains plutonium 239 and its release into the Ocean has both local as well as global repercussions. A microgram of plutonium if inhaled, according to Dr. Helen Caldicott, can cause death:

Certain isotopes of radioactive plutonium are known as some of the deadliest poisons on the face of the earth. A mere microgram (a speck of darkness on a pinhead) of Plutonium-239, if inhaled, can cause death, and if ingested, radioactive Plutonium can be harmful, causing leukemia and other bone cancers.

“In the days following the 2011 earthquake and nuclear plant explosions, seawater meant to cool the nuclear power plants instead carried radioactive elements back to the Pacific ocean. Radioactive Plutonium was one of the elements streamed back to sea.”(decodescience.com).

It would appear that the radioactive water has already penetrated parts of the Japanese coastline:"

ACTUALLY, IT DID A LOT MORE THAN THAT.WE'VE SEEN BEFORE HERE IN THE TEA ROOM HOW THOSE URANIUM BUCKYBALLS WERE FORMED WHEN SEAWATER WAS DUMPED ON THE REACTORS THERE, THAT THEY TRAVEL AT ALMOST LIGHT SPEED ACROSS THE PACIFIC, CREATE A GOO THAT IS FLUNG ASHORE IN SURF AND WIND.

AND THEN THERE IS THE INCESSANT BURNING OF GATHERED RADIOACTIVE WASTE, RUBBLE, CONTAMINATED ARTICLES FROM THE ATTEMPTED CLEANUP, THE "MYSTERIOUS" PLUMES OF STEAM OR ??? RISING FROM THE CRIPPLED PLANT, THE REACTORS THAT HAVE THE ROOF OFF FOR ATTEMPTED REPAIRS, ALLOWING RAIN TO WASH THROUGH THE BUILDINGS...IT'S UNENDING.

THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT IS EVEN BURYING CONTAMINATED SOIL, RUBBISH, ETC, IN HEAVY PLASTIC BAGS IN JAPANESE PARKS, NEAR APARTMENT COMPLEXES, STACKING THEM IN SCHOOL YARDS...

AND IN THE RECENT TYPHOON, ABOUT 100 HUGE CONTAINERS OF RADIOACTIVE WATER, WE ASSUME, WERE WASHED OUT TO SEA, ALONG WITH FLOOD WATERS THAT HAD RUN THROUGH THE DAIICHI COMPOUND, CARRYING HIGH LEVEL RADIATION WITH IT INTO THE PACIFIC.

WE KNOW THAT RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT FROM WEAPONS TESTING IN THE 1950s IS STILL ABOVE US, THAT IT RETURNS TO EARTH IN RAIN, AND SO DOES WHAT WAS AND STILL IS EMITTED BY THE DAIICHI REACTORS' MANY CRACKS, STILL FAULTY MISMANAGEMENT AND ALL THAT COOLING WATER.

WHEN TEPCO AND THE ABE GOVERNMENT FIRST ESTIMATED A 10-YEAR CLEANUP, CHANGED THAT TO 40 YEARS, THEN TO 100, AND NOW SAYS MAYBE 200 TO 400 YEARS, WE SHOULD HAVE SEEN SOME INTERNATIONAL GROUP STEP IN AND TAKE THE CLEANUP TASKS AWAY FROM JAPAN.

WHEN FUKUSHIMA FALLOUT FIRST SHOWED UP IN AMERICAN MILK, WATER AND CROPS, OUR OWN GOVERNMENT SHOULD HAVE FORMULATED A PLAN TO MONITOR EVERYTHING.

INSTEAD, IT MONITORS ALMOST NOTHING AND EVEN SHUT DOWN MANY MONITORING SITES, THEN MOVED TO INCREASE THE "ACCEPTABLE LEVELS" OF RADIATION IN EVERYTHING WE CONSUME, AND THE RADIATION LEVELS UNBORN HUMAN BABIES AND THEIR PREGNANT MOTHERS CAN RECEIVE.

NONE OF THAT IS REMOTELY A SOLUTION TO THE WORST NUCLEAR ACCIDENT IN ALL HISTORY.

NONE OF THAT STOPS THE DAI'ICHI PLANT FROM CONTINUOUSLY ADDING MEGA-TONS PER DAY OF RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT AND WATER TO OUR ALREADY OVER-RADIATED PLANET.

"In 1987 Congress passed legislation that required the Department of Energy (DoE) to take possession of and properly store the spent fuel from the nation's 104 nuclear reactors by the then far-off date of February 1998. Now 11 years behind schedule, the DoE's primary response—to bury it deep within Yucca Mountain—is no closer to being a permanent solution.

The Energy Department last June finally applied to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the federal government agency that oversees the nation's nuclear power plants, for a license to build the repository at Yucca. But taxpayers still spend roughly $1 billion a year (in fines paid by the federal government) to utilities to compensate them for the delay.

All told, the nuclear reactors in the U.S. produce more than 2,000 metric tons of radioactive waste a year, according to the DoE—and most of it ends up sitting on-site because there is nowhere else to put it." UNDERSTAND, PLEASE, THE ABOVE STATS DO NOT TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION THE RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATED GARBAGE, DEBRIS, MATERIALS USED IN MAINTENANCE OF THOSE FACILITIES, NOR DOES IT ACCOUNT FOR MEDICAL NUCLEAR WASTE, NOR FOR THE RADIOACTIVE WASTE CREATED BY MANUFACTURERS OF PRODUCTS THAT CONTAIN "SMALL AMOUNTS" OF RADIATION.GAUGES, NUTS, BOLTS, TOOLS, GLOVES, PROTECTIVE CLOTHING, FILTERS, EQUIPMENT, EVEN LIGHT BULBS AND TOILET TISSUE ARE COUNTED IN THE LONG LIST OF RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATED ITEMS COLLECTED EACH DAY IN AMERICA.

UNDERSTAND ALSO THAT THE WIPP FACILITY THAT ARTICLE MENTIONED AS "STANDING FOR 10,000 YEARS" HAS ALREADY BEGUN TO SERIOUSLY CRUMBLE AND MAY BE CLOSED FOR GOOD AFTER ITS OWN REPEATED FAILURES AND 'ACCIDENTS' IN 2014."The plutonium ensconced in the salt mine at the center of this installation (WIPP) will be lethal to humans for at least 25 times that long (250,000YEARS) —even once the salt walls ooze inward to entomb the legacy of American atomic weapons. And WIPP will only hold a fraction, though a more deadly fraction, of the amount of nuclear waste the U.S. plans to store at Yucca Mountain in Nevada or some other site designated to replace it as a permanent repository for the residue of nuclear reactions."YUCCA MOUNTAIN, NEVADA?

"Critics, including environmentalists and Nevada residents and politicians, charge the site is unsuitable for a variety of reasons, most notably because of its proximity to fault lines (earthquakes have already damaged some buildings at Yucca Mountain) and because water that flows through its rock may ultimately circulate radioactive waste into the soil or drinking water.

But the federal government has already spent some $11 billion building a kind of reverse mine, a deep shaft bored into the side of the mountain sheathed in stainless steel in which to bury the waste.

To complete the repository would require at least $90 billion in total, according to a Bush administration estimate in 2008, and would not come online before 2017 at the earliest."

SURPRISE!AS OF JULY, 2015, LOOKS LIKE YUCCA MOUNTAIN HAS BEEN DEFEATED AS A WASTE DUMP SITE."The state of Nevada was not happy with being America’s nuclear dump. It filed a lawsuit that dragged out planning and building. Senate leader Harry Reid—from Nevada—and President Obama both opposed the repository. The whole idea has been mothballed."

NOBODY WANTS THAT HIGH LEVEL WASTE NEAR THEM!THAT'S WHY THE FEDS DUMP IT ON OR NEAR INDIAN RESERVATIONS, IN "ECONOMICALLY DISTRESSED AREAS" AND AWAY FROM "THE RICH AND FAMOUS"!"Finding an alternative or figuring out how to make Yucca Mountain work—there is already so much nuclear waste in the U.S. that, according to NRC, if Yucca were already open, by 2010 it would be filled to its statutory limit of 70,000 metric tons—will take up "a significant part of my time and energy," new Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu, a physicist, testified during his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this month (THIS WAS JANUARY, 2009!). "We do need a plan on how to dispose of that waste safely, over a long period of time."But nearly all of the nuclear power plants in the U.S. have already run out of storage space, because these pools were not designed to be long-term containers and enough room needs to be preserved in case of a crisis such as a meltdown. In the absence of a long-term solution (such as burying the waste deep inside Yucca Mountain), the nuclear industry has turned to so-called dry cask storage.But some environmentalists and other nuclear power critics contend that such dry casks present a tempting target for terrorists and a disaster for the environment if ever breached."WE HAVE TO FACE IT...THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SAFE STORAGE FOR NUCLEAR WASTE, NO SUCH THING AS SAFE NUCLEAR ENERGY!EVERYTHING THAT HAS BEEN TRIED TO MAKE IT SAFE HAS FAILED, FAILED, FAILED!IF YOU THINK THE CRISIS IS OVER BECAUSE ALMOST FIVE YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE THE FUKUSHIMA DISASTER IN JAPAN, PLEASE, THINK AGAIN!THE LIFE YOU SAVE JUST MAY BE YOUR OWN IF YOU DO JUST READ AND THINK.ASK YOURSELF HOW THINGS CAN POSSIBLY BE "JUST FINE" WHEN ALL THIS IS STILL ONGOING.DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH INTO IT, BUT KEEP AN OPEN MIND AND APPLY GOOD OLD LOGIC, UNEMOTIONAL, UNCUT LOGIC, "COMMON SENSE", IF YOU WILL.

THE TEA ROOM IS DEEPLY DEDICATED TO THE PRESERVATION OF THE SPECIES KNOWN AS 'HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS', BUT ALSO TO ALL LIFE ON THIS WEE PLANET, AND TO MAINTAINING THE PLANET ITSELF AS THE ONLY HOME WE HAVE.THOSE WE HAVE BLINDLY DEPENDED ON TO SAFEGUARD US, THE PLANET AND LIFE ON IT HAVE FAILED US MISERABLY!NO FEDERAL AGENCY, NOT THE EPA, FDA, NRC OR USDA, NOT ONE, IS PROTECTING US.

IT'S UP TO US, "AVERAGE CITIZENS", TO SAVE WHAT WE CAN, TO DO WHAT WE CAN, TO PRESERVE WHAT WE CAN...WHILE WE CAN.

WE NEED EACH OTHER AS WE HAVE AT NO OTHER TIME IN HISTORY.THIS JAPANESE DISASTER IS UNLIKE ANYTHING HUMANS HAVE EVER FACED BEFORE.NO ONE WHO HAS THE RESOURCES TO DO ANYTHING TO STOP IT WANTS TO LET GO OF THE FUNDS TO STOP IT BECAUSE IT WOULD COST TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO DO SO.WE MUST APPLY WHATEVER PRESSURE WE CAN TO FORCE CHANGE.THAT WILL TAKE A LOT OF VOICES.WE MUST BE THE VOICES FOR THE VOICELESS AS WELL.

ALL THAT WE KNOW AND LOVE IS IN GRAVE DANGER.IT TRULY IS NOW OR NEVER.READ, PLEASE, THINK, RESEARCH, SHARE, BE A VOICE FOR HOPE.

Toxic waste is virtually indestructible for millions of years. In scientific engineering, the risk cycle of nuclear power reactors cannot be fully validated as safe until waste can be permanently removed, stored, degraded.

The facts are that although nuclear power makes up 16% of the worlds energy supply - a significantly high incident and failure rate has been experienced since early inception. Every year there is at least one accident... [After World War II] they couldn't 'dispose or degrade the nuclear weapons. They had created enough to nuke the entire planet. So they did what they considered to be the next best thing. They transferred the risk - recycled nuclear weapons into power plants...]NO WAY OF SAFE DISPOSAL.

So then it becomes a matter of adopting that into the world culture.

How do you tell your voting public that your predecessors have screwed up and you can't fix it? And not fixing it means 'end of the world' stuff. YOU DON'T TELL THEM.You market the only alternative as a 'new safer way' forward.

ONSITE COMMENT TO THAT ARTICLE: "Nuclear waste (plutonium) has a half life of a quarter million years or over 11,250 generations. This represents almost 1000 times longer than the US has been a country. So one generation of benefits and 11,250 generations with no benefits and liabilities off the charts. A Faustian bargain that our grandkids will curse us for, assuming they survive."

JUST THINK ABOUT THAT?CONSIDER IT.

Edward Morse, Professor at the Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, in an interview in 2013 , talked about the current Fukushima effect on the US.

Morse said, “Right now, the radiation levels have just climbed up out of the point of obscurity.

Now, the latest measurement, which is 1.4 becquerels per liter. This level right now is close to the federal limit for drinking water in the U.S.”

Talking about the plausible threat Fukushima still presents, Mr Morse said the matter still remained serious. He explained that there are three damaged reactors and a spent fuel pool which all, potentially, could release further quantities of radiation at larger levels than they have already.

Concluding, Morse said that California has got more radiation than Russia’s Far East, because the prevailing winds go from the west to the east, “In fact, we measured the radiation levels in Berkeley back in 2011, and [found that] they were higher here than in the water around Fukushima.

And we did not think that they were threatening at that time. But it was interesting."

Then, asphalt along a roadside in the sunny city, which catches plenty of rainfall was measured, much more recently, and a disturbing 3579 pci/kg were found.

By anyone’s standards, that cannot just be chalked up as background radiation.

Fukushima fallout isn't just coming via ocean currents. It is in our rain, air and soil now.

After all the "cleanup" of radioactive waste [at Fukushima], and billions of dollars which will likely be needed to even make a dent in its removal, nuclear energy plants need to be shut down one by one, and never permitted as a source of energy (or warfare) again."

Abrams says ANY additional radiation, EVEN AT LOW DOSES, comes on top of the radiation people receive from natural background and from the more than 550 million medical and dental radiological exams given annually in the United States.

“The underlying premise that HAS to be considered as you talk about radioactivity, the water and people being exposed to it, is that the effects of radiation are CUMULATIVE,” Abrams said. “THEY ADD UP OVER TIME. The question is, what is the turning point?

And that’s why the common sense is to avoid radiation as much as you can.”

PLEASE, PAY EXTRA CLOSE ATTENTION TO WHAT HE SAYS NEXT:“Am I concerned? Yes I am,” said Abrams. “And that’s because I know radiation pretty well. I’ve been training (medical) residents for 60 years and part of that training is a respect for the effects.

It shakes up the cell and it goes after the genetic material ... The bottom line is that (radiation) is a carcinogenic agent.”

WHAT A DIFFERENCE TO HEAR FROM A MAN DEDICATED TO SAVING LIVES AND ONE PAID BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO "CALM US DOWN AND PREVENT PANIC", WHICH IS PURE UNCUT BULL BECAUSE "PUBLIC PANIC" IS NOT WHY THEY AREN'T DOING ANYTHING TO INFORM US! THEY DON'T WANT MORE LAWSUITS!

IT'S ABOUT LEGAL LIABILITY AND MAYBE MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WANTING TO SUE THE SUPREME HELL OUT OF TEPCO, THE ABE GOONS AND MAYBE EVEN GENERAL ELECTRIC WHOSE FAULTY DESIGN MAY HAVE HELPED CAUSE THE MELTDOWNS IN THEIR REACTORS AT DAIICHI.

THE WITHHOLDING OF CRUCIAL INFORMATION ALSO KEEPS AMERICANS FROM SCREAMING FOR AN END TO OUR OWN NUCLEAR REACTORS.

THE FEDERAL BOYS AND THE BIG NUKE BOYS ARE ALL TERRIFIED THAT AMERICANS WILL SEE WHAT HELL CAN BE UNLEASHED RIGHT HERE IN THE OLD USA BY OUR OWN CRUMBLING NUCLEAR ENERGY RUINS ANDDEMAND THEY BE SHUT DOWN FOREVER. IF WE DID MAKE SUCH DEMANDS, THE NUCLEAR ENERGY INDUSTRY WOULD BE FINANCIALLY DEVASTATED AND OUR GOVERNMENT WOULD HAVE NO SAFE PLACE TO BURY ALL THE NUCLEAR WASTE FOR THE NEXT THOUSANDS OF YEARS.

THEY ARE SIMPLY CHOOSING THEM OVER US!

SPEAKING OF PAID GOVERNMENT BUTT-KISSING FLUNKIES, HERE'S ONE FOR THE BOOKS.Nov. 19, 2014:

Ken Buesseler, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution:

“My biggest concern is what’s going on in Japan today, and how that might… make its way across to our coast… We know it’s still leaking because we’re measuring higher levels off Japan to this day… Even just the basic question, “How much radioactivity was released at Fukushima?” I can’t answer that today. We may never be able to because of the lack of sampling… particularly in the ocean.”

Reporter: The models predict cesium levels to increase over the next 2 or 3 years.

Buesseler: “If the levels were higher, we’d be very concerned about what’s going on today… We need to be out there making measurements of what happened 3 and a half years ago and how it’s being moved across the ocean.”

AND WE DID GET ABOVE THE "EXPECTED" 7Bq/m³ !Test results from August 2014 show that just offshore California, radioactive cesium levels have reached nearly 9 Bq/m³ (Cs-137 @ 6.9 Bq/m³; Cs-134 @ 1.7 Bq/m³).

KENNY DIDN'T EXPECT 7 BUT WE HAD 9!SO NOW WHAT?

AND OLD KENNY B. IS STILL NOT COMING CLEAN! WHAT NOW, KENNY?

As reported above, these levels are predicted to continue to increase for years to come.REPORTED HARDLY ANYWHERE ARE THE OTHER HUNDREDS OF RADIONUCLIDES EMITTED DAILY FROM THE DAI'ICHI FACILITY!NOBODY WANTS TO TALK ABOUT ANYTHING BUT THE CESIUM-137 WHICH CAN BE BLAMED ON "BACKGROUND LEVELS" FROM OLD NUCLEAR TESTS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LAST CENTURY!

"It would take a massive epidemiologic study, requiring years of research and millions of dollars, to trace any cancer back to the low-level radioactive waters from Fukushima.

So what is the risk of swimming, surfing and splashing about in the low-level radioactive waters for the next two years?

Abrams has more than a passing familiarity with much of the scientific literature on the subject comprised since the advent of atomic energy in 1945.

“There’s been so much done in this area that has produced some acceptable conclusions, but they’re population conclusions and it’s very hard to bring them down to the level of an individual,” he said.

“I mean you can just say there IS increased risk. But how do you translate that into an understandable discussion of what’s going to happen to guys on their surfboards? I don’t know.”

And no SOLUTIONS are being proposed.

WE ARE BECOMING OR HAVE ALREADY BECOME LIKE THE ABE ADMINISTRATION IN JAPAN WHICH DARED TO TELL ITS HIGHEST RADIATED CITIZENS TO "KEEP SMILING AND THE RADIATION WILL NOT AFFECT YOU". HERE, AS IN JAPAN, DOCTORS ARE NO LONGER TALKING PUBLICLY ABOUT THE DANGERS OF LOW LEVEL RADIATION TO (ESPECIALLY) PREGNANT WOMEN, THEIR UNBORN AND NEWBORN CHILDREN, THE AGED OR THE INFIRM.EVERYTHING IS FINE.

IF YOUR CHILD DEVELOPED THYROID NODULES OR YOUR BABY WAS BORN WITH NEURAL TUBE DEFECT OR OTHER RARE DEFECTS, DON'T BLAME RADIATION.

“Tepco has lost the trust of the Japanese people. They are covering up how badly the groundwater has been contaminated…

When there is a leak into the water around the tanks, they don’t have to say anything. The cleanup is far from finished. There is an enormous amount of radiation debris remaining. Tepco said it will take 40 years, I believe it will take far longer.”

“It’s been 3 years now, the situation hasn’t changed. After the explosion, nobody knew what to do.Tepco and the government didn’t know how to deal with it — yet the world still wants nuclear energy, this is ridiculous…

A cleanup can’t be done. Tepco lied from the start; Tepco is a den of inequity.”

TEPCO IS STILL LYING, THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT AND OUR OWN ARE STILL LYING! THEY DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR THEIR INADEQUACY IN STOPPING THE LEAKS, FOR FAILURE TO END THE NIGHTMARE!

NEVER BELIEVE ANYONE WHO SAYS THIS IS ALL TO PREVENT PANIC, PREVENT MASS HYSTERIA.

PANIC BE DAMNED!

LET US HAVE KNOWLEDGE SO WE CAN AT LEAST TRY TO SAVE OURSELVES, PREPARE FOR WHAT'S AHEAD...LET US HAVE THE TRUTH! IT WAS THE USA, OUR OWN AMERICAN GOVERNMENT WHO MADE THE BIG LOOPHOLE THAT ALLOWS JAPAN TO DUMP ITS NUCLEAR SEWAGE INTO THE PACIFIC, KILLING AN ENTIRE OCEAN!THE AMERICAN BIG NUKE BOYS LAID THEIR PLANS DECADES AGO!"US tried to conspire with Japan to dump nuclear waste into world’s oceans, reveal documents ...

"When nuclear energy production technology first began to emerge in the US in the 1950s, neither scientists nor the US government considered what would be done with nuclear reactors once it was time for them to be put out of commission. And recently-released documents reveal that, in an effort to hastily deal with this problem after the fact, the US government actually tried to conspire with Japan to gain secret approval for dumping decommissioned nuclear reactors into the world’s oceans.

In 1972, the United Nations (UN) had proposed the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, also known as the London Convention, to deal with the growing, global pollution problem. The agreement’s provisions sought to specifically regulate the environmental pollution that signing nations could and could not dump into the oceans, which of course included nuclear production materials.

But since a finalized version of the agreement had not yet been fully established, the US government took advantage of the situation by seeking to insert an exemption cause permitting the dumping of decommissioned nuclear reactors into the ocean. And since Japan had also been involved in developing its own nuclear energy program, the US thought it could gain additional support for the exemption clause from its Asian ally.

But Japan allegedly did not comply, according to Kumao Kaneko, 74, who was a member of the Foreign Ministry team involved in the negotiations at the time. So the US decided to go it alone in proposing its exemption clause, which was meant to be a last-resort option — and it was eventually successful in achieving its goal.

Russia, a signing member of the London Convention, openly admitted back in 1993, for instance, that it dumps nuclear reactors and fuel into the ocean because it allegedly has no other safe way to dispose of such materials. (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/russ…)

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), however, claims the US stopped dumping nuclear reactors into the ocean a long time ago. And US officials claim that decommissioned nuclear reactors are today buried in the ground rather than dumped into the ocean."

DID AMERICA PUT HUMAN LIVES FIRST?NO!!!

PROFITS, IT PUT PROFITS FIRST, THE PROFITS FOR THE NUCLEAR ENERGY INDUSTRY WHICH WOULD COVER NICELY FOR AMERICA'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM!

THE ARMS RACE WILL NEVER BE OVER!

DUMPING NUCLEAR WASTE ANYWHERE IT CAN, CHEAPLY, WILL ALSO NEVER BE OVER!

"In soil, the PAGs allow long-term public exposure to radiation in amounts as high as 2,000 millirems," explains the press release. "This would, in effect, increase a longstanding 1 in 10,000 person cancer rate to a rate of 1 in 23 persons exposed over a 30-year period."

For drinking water, the requirements are even more obscured. According to the same report, the EPA's new standard is undefined in this regard as the agency "continues to seek input."

PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch said,"If this typifies the environmental leadership we can expect from Ms. McCarthy," he stated, referring to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, "then [the] EPA is in for a long, dirty slog. No compelling justification is offered for increasing the cancer deaths of Americans innocently exposed to corporate miscalculations several hundred-fold."TOO MUCH RADIOACTIVE WASTE TO BURYIN FEBRUARY OF 2014, THE RESIDENTS NEAR THE HUGE WIPP NUCLEAR WASTE DISPOSAL SITE NEAR CARLSBAD, NM, COULD HAVE FACED SOMETHING SIMILAR TO WHAT THE RESIDENTS OF THE FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE FACED."An alarm late Friday night indicating higher than usual levels of airborne radiation led to a first-of-its-kind response at a nuclear disposal facility outside of Carlsbad, New Mexico, an Energy Department spokesman told CNN.An air monitor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) detected the spike in an isolated area half a mile below the ground. The incident prompted an immediate shutoff of filtered air from the facility into the environment around it.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT INTERVENED TO STOP NEW MEXICO FROM LEVYING MONTHLY MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR FINES FOR WIPP'S REFUSAL TO CLEAN UP AND/OR SHUT DOWN.

IN THE FUTURE, SHOULD ANYONE WHO WAS AFFECTED BY THIS PRESENT WITH CANCERS OR ANY HEALTH PROBLEMS RELATED TO THIS INCIDENT, THEY CANNOT SUE THE MANAGERS AT WIPP! THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO "SATISFACTORILY PROVE" IT WAS THE FAULT OF WIPP RADIATION.THE RESIDENTS NEAR ALL AMERICAN NUCLEAR FACILITIES HAVE FACED THE SAME DENIAL AND THE SAME UNCARING FOR DECADES NOW.

EVEN THOSE SECRETLY AND INTENTIONALLY SUBJECTED TO MASS RADIATION RELEASES AND OVER 4,000 SECRET "EXPERIMENTS" DURING U.S. NUCLEAR ABOVE-GROUND TESTING WHO HAVE SINCE DISCOVERED THEY WERE VICTIMS CANNOT WIN A COURT CASE AGAINST "BIG NUKE".[PLEASE SEE"How scientists secretly used US citizens as guinea pigs"]

During the first days of the Japanese disaster in 2011, many of the EPA's monitors were down or were purposely taken offline.WHY? Several lawmakers and nuclear experts asked that same question!

"The question remains unanswered as to why we have gaps," said California Senate Majority Leader Ellen M. Corbett, (D-San Leandro), who chairs the state committee on earthquake and disaster preparedness. "The radiation monitors that we do have in California must be properly checked and maintained."

Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear watchdog who lectures on nuclear policy at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said he was uneasy about malfunctioning monitors.

"The fundamental concern is that we're being offered bland assurances that everything is ok but much of the monitoring system was broken," Hirsch said.

To save money, EPA relies in part on trained volunteers to regularly change out air filters on the RadNet monitors and mail them to a federal lab in Alabama where the data gets a detailed analysis a few days later. Volunteers are also tasked with alerting EPA if something goes wrong with the machine."

From 1946 through 1993, thirteen countries (fourteen, if the USSR and Russia are considered separately) used ocean disposal or ocean dumping as a method to dispose of nuclear/radioactive waste. The waste materials included both liquids and solids housed in various containers, as well as reactor vessels, with and without spent or damaged nuclear fuel. Since 1993, ocean disposal has been banned by international treaties. (London Convention (1972), Basel Convention, MARPOL 73/78)

However, according to the United Nations, some companies have been dumping radioactive waste and other hazardous materials into the coastal waters of Somalia, taking advantage of the fact that the country had no functioning government from the early 1990s onwards. This caused health problems for locals in the coastal region and posed a significant danger to Somalia’s fishing industry and local marine life.

“Ocean floor disposal” (or sub-seabed disposal)—a more deliberate method of delivering radioactive waste to the ocean floor and depositing it into the seabed—was studied by the UK and Sweden, but never implemented."WE DIDN'T KNOW NUCLEAR ENERGY WOULD CREATE SO MUCH DANGEROUS WASTE PRODUCT"A brief history of USA’s nuclear waste (mis)managementMAYBE YOU WILL BELIEVE IT "IN THEIR OWN WORDS"?

Soviet Nuclear Waste Dumps

Chernobyl introduced the world to the lax safety procedures in nuclear plants of the now-defunct Soviet Union, but the Barents Sea was where the system's roughest edges were hidden. That is the import of the revelations by a Russian nuclear engineer, Andrei Zolotkov, who says he participated in dumping radioactive reactor wastes off Novaya Zemlya during the 1970s.

Later, as a member of the old Soviet parliament, Mr. Zolotkov must have had pangs of conscience as he began gathering the evidence for the reports that he recently released to Western environmental groups.

What he found is, indeed, chilling:

* At least 12 nuclear reactors were dumped into shallow gulfs off Novaya Zemlya, an Arctic island the Soviets had used since the 1950s as a nuclear test range. One of these reactors is believed to be inside a submarine that was sunk following a major nuclear accident.

Three reactors from the world's first nuclear icebreaker, the Lenin, were encased in an epoxy-like substance and dropped off Novaya Zemlya in 1967. The ship had suffered a serious accident, and the Soviets simply blasted the reactors through the hull to the waters below.

* Half the dumped reactors still had their highly radioactive fuel inside.

* Thousands of containers of solid radioactive wastes from Soviet submarines and icebreakers were sunk in the same Barents Sea and Kara Sea areas as well, in some cases after holes were cut to help them reach the bottom.

* American naval vessels also dumped wastes, but Hyman Rickover realized the political implications and pushed for saferdisposal during the 1960s. U. S. law since 1970 and a 1972 London convention on ocean dumping restricted dumping of even low-level wastes to depths greater than 12,000 feet. High-level wastes could not be dumped at all. The Soviets, signatories since 1976, concealed their dirty work.

It took the fall of a government to reveal the duplicity. Getting information about the extent of the dumping and the precise location of the wastes must now be a top priority. The cold Arctic waters provide much of the sea harvests that feed the world and the marine life harbored there interacts with food chains far from the Arctic.

That's plenty of justification for the expense and difficulty of international efforts to locate and remove the dangerous deposits. Organisms in oceanic ecosystems depend on the oxygen-rich Arctic waters and the teeming life they support.

Troublesome problems of disposal of the highly toxic nuclear substances will remain, but for now getting the stuff off the shallow sea bottom before contamination worsens is the top priority.

[AND THIS IS WHAT WE CAN ALL LOOK FORWARD TO IF THE JAPANESE DISASTER IS NOT SOON RESOLVED BECAUSE WHAT THAT MONSTER IS PUMPING OUT DAILY MAKES WHAT RUSSIA DID LOOK NICE!WHAT OUR OWN PAPER MILLS PUMP INTO OURAMERICAN RIVERS MORE THAN RIVALS WHAT THESE PEOPLE FACE.]

April 19, 1992[YES, THIS WAS IN 1992]

ARCHANGEL, Russia -- Soviet power has disappeared here, but it has left a fatal legacy.

The march toward communism cost the people of Archangel their pure air, clean water and even the health of their children. This snowy expanse near the Arctic Circle seems fouled beyond all understanding.

The damage was thorough, unrelenting and so insidious that scientists have yet to determine its extent.

The latest victims are thousands of harp seals dying of cancer from the harm the former Soviet Union inflicted upon itself and its unsuspecting people as it moved to industrialization and superpower status.

Scientists suspect that these beautiful animals with the large imploring eyes are being killed by years of irresponsible Soviet nuclear testing and dumping.

Once the seals were threatened only by hunters who club the pups to death for their luxurious, snow-white pelts. Now those that survive migrate through water so contaminated that environmentalists imagine it fairly crackles with radioactivity.

Scientists began taking blood and tissue samples from the seals two years ago, after more than a million dead starfish washed up along the White Sea coast.

They are still unsure of what killed the starfish, but the study of the seals has revealed blood pathologies consistent with long-term toxic or radioactive exposure.

"This is a problem so big and serious it goes beyond us," says Yuri K. Timoshenko, director of the marine mammal laboratory at the Polar Scientific Research Institute here.

"It goes beyond our studies and finances."

Mr. Timoshenko says it is too soon to submit findings to scientific journals, for scientists have not yet established an absolute link to the nuclear waste here.

But the evidence is strong enough that when he began to suspect recently that the Russian government would resume nuclear testing on the island of Novaya Zemlya, Mr. Timoshenko and two colleagues alerted the people of Archangel.

They published an article in a local newspaper, Pravda of the North, earlier this month warning that thousands of seals were ill with blood cancers.

"In the last decades, monstrous experiments connected with numerous nuclear weapons tests were performed on Novaya Zemlya," the article said.

"The Barents Sea and the coast of Novaya Zemlya were turned into a dump for solid and liquid radioactive waste. A catastrophic situation has been created. A real threat has emerged, not only to sea mammals but everything in the ocean. The ecological and genetic consequences are unpredictable."

Novaya Zemlya, an Arctic island twice as big as Switzerland, was cleared of its inhabitants in the 1950s to make way for nuclear weapons testing.

The frigid waters of the White and Barents seas were used as a dump for spent reactors from nuclear submarines and icebreakers.

Environmentalists say that the Soviet government operated its nuclear program with reckless disregard not only for sea animals but for people.

Industry was pursued with the same abandon.

Here in the Archangel region, a territory as large as France, the woods fade into tundra and then into the ice of the Arctic Circle.

This time of year, the city of Archangel, which is 130 miles from the Arctic Circle, is covered with a fresh layer of glittering snow.

Ice fishermen dot the Dvina River. A brisk wind blows fresh air across the land.

But the brightness and the remoteness, the antiseptic whiteness, the lightly populated countryside, belie the truth.

The 1.6 million people of the Archangel region live amid environmental disaster.

Archangel produces nearly all of Russia's paper supply, along with turpentine and cellulose. The region is the world's biggest exporter of timber, sending off 980 million cubic feet a year.

More than half the population lives in or near the city.

The Dvina River, which supplies the city's drinking water, is seriously polluted by paper and pulp plants; researchers have found horrifying levels of dioxin, a suspected carcinogen that has proven deadly to laboratory animals.

Oil quite often is spilled as it is loaded onto ships or into storage tanks -- recently almost 90 tons poured onto the ice of the White Sea, a local official said.

Timber is cut without replenishing the forests and erosion is further damaging the waters off Archangel. A hole in the ozone above threatens. A huge diamond deposit has been discovered 60 miles north of the city, and environmentalists are struggling to prevent strip mining, which would turn now untouched land into a moonscape.

Nearly 200 miles south of Archangel, rockets arc over the sky to the east in secret military tests.

The boosters scatter to the ground, with vestiges of dangerous fuel in them.

Most terrifying of all, no one has any idea what the military is up to. "Our economy is unequaled in the world by the concentration of military factories," says Viktor S. Sadkov, a member of the regional council.

"We ought to be in the Guinness Book of Records. Just now we are starting to understand our state is a big, unitary military camp."

Profound health risks

Local health officials report cancer rates 50 to 100 percent higher than the average in Russia. Only 8 percent of the region's children are born healthy, Mr. Sadkov says. Many suffer from allergies, lung and blood diseases and various degrees of retardation.

The extent and effects of the pollution have not been seriously studied, as far as civilian authorities know. And even if most people did know their health was threatened, they are trapped. The law forbids citizens to move to another city without a special permit.

"The health of the population is declining, but we cannot say what is causing it because we never investigated it," says Anatoly P. Minayev, director of ecology for the regional government.

Much of the despoliation is blamed on the old central authorities. "The general reason is colonial exploitation of the north," complains Vladimir D. Kozlov, director of research at a 2-year-old ecological institute here. "The preservation of nature was neglected as well as the health of people."

The reason was simple economics, he said. Safety precautions cost money. "The nuclear submarine Komsomolets sank for free," Mr. Kozlov says."And it will cost $300 million to get it back."

The submarine sank on the edge of the Barents Sea, a result of poor design, training and maintenance, killing 42 people.

Last week, on the third anniversary of the sinking, Capt. Aleksei Nikolayev, deputy commander in chief of the Navy, says the poverty-stricken Commonwealth of Independent States canafford routine maintenance for only half of its naval ships.

Twelve submarine nuclear reactors and three icebreaker reactors were dumped off Novaya Zemlya in the last two or three decades, according to Greenpeace, an environmental organization. More than 17,000 containers of liquid and solid radioactive waste also were dumped there.

Mr. Kozlov said one test sample revealed such a high level of dioxin in the Dvina that he is unwilling to disclose it. "It was so frightening I can't mention it," he says. "It would cause a scandal. It would be irresponsible. This was only one sample, and you must take many."

The Archangel authorities lack a $100,000 Hewlett-Packard device that can register the dioxin level, Mr. Kozlov said. Perhaps, he says somewhat humorously, someone could donate one as humanitarian aid.

Sources here say that the dioxin -- created from paper bleaching operations -- is 1,000 times higher than the level permitted in Russia, and 2 million times higher than what is permitted in the United States. Tests have shown dioxin can suppress the human immune system, which would leave a person vulnerable to infection.

Mr. Kozlov says the level of methyl mercaptan in the air here is twice that permitted in Russia. Methyl mercaptan, used by paper mills to turn wood chips into pulp, smells like rotten eggs. It is an eye, lung and skin irritant and highly toxic to fish.

"Many people knew for a long time there were explosions on Novaya Zemlya," says Viktor F. Tolkachev, deputy editor of Volna, a local newspaper. "But people here were proud of it because it was preventing you [Americans] from attacking us. And still many feel this way."

One day at a time

Sergei Fyodorov, chairman of Ecology of the North and editor of a weekly newspaper, said that economic hardship has sapped the anti-nuclear fervor generated six years ago by the explosion at nuclear reactors in Chernobyl.

"Now people live just for one day," he says. "They don't think into the future. After Chernobyl, radioactive meat was sent here and of course it provoked indignation.

Now people say let it be radioactive, just give us meat.

It might cause sickness sometime in the future and it might not, but one is hungry every day."

Not everyone feels that way. A group of eight local residents, accompanied by a Norwegian journalist, plans to ski 500 miles across the ice and snow to Novaya Zemlya to draw attention to their anti-nuclear cause. They expect to set off on the month-long trip this weekend, braving bitter cold and polar bears.

This is a do-it-yourself trip: they tore apart Soviet flags and sewed them into outdoor gear.

The expedition is backed by a feisty group of environmentalists named 'Toward Novaya Zemlya', a play on words in Russian that also means Toward a New Earth. "We don't think we can make any real progress until we begin to privatize industries," says Alexei I. Klimov, an organizer of the group. "The state will not punish the state."

It will be exceedingly difficult to change the way the paper companies operate. To close them down would be disastrous to the local and national economy -- there's a desperate shortage of paper. And it's politically impossible. Many of the regional officials have strong ties to the plants.

A few weeks ago the conservative majority on the regional council voted against declaring the region a "zone of ecological catastrophe." It would scare people, they say.

If you're normal," Mr. Sadkov says, "you should be scared of this. But then you have to break the psychological barriers that have been imposed all these years and do something about it."

Facts must be gathered, Mr. Kozlov says, and the cash-strapped government must come to terms with a hugely expensive, overwhelming problem. "We're optimistic. That's all that remains us," Mr. Kozlov says with resolute cheerfulness. "Maybe we'll have to import revolution from Latin America instead of exporting it as we formerly did."

The annual hunt for the harp seal is under way now in the White Sea. The survivors are floating on ice floes toward the Barents Sea off Novaya Zemlya, along their long-traveled route.

In the fall, they will return to the White Sea, having crossed once more through poisonous waters.

"We are scared," says Mr. Sadkov. "If the seals are sick then the fish probably are diseased. We can only guess what will happen to us."

Outside the regional government building stands a Thirties-era monument of a rough-hewn northerner, his arm draped over a reindeer.

A quote from Lenin is written in golden letters, the volume and page cited just as a Biblical phrase might be in the West: "The Northern Forests have to give 'up to half a billion rubles a year in the shortest period of time from now.' "

The forests have given up that, and much, much more. And no one knows if it can be put back again, or at what price."

THE RUSSIAN Navy will have to continue dumping reactors and radioactive fuel from nuclear submarines at sea because it does not have the technology to dispose of the material safely, a senior Russian government official has admitted, writes Dean Nelson.

The ADMISSION comes in a report by a high-level committee headed by President Boris Yeltsin's top environment advisor Alexei Yablokov, established to investigate the Russian Navy's nuclear dumping since 1959.

It found that the navy's northern and Pacific fleets have been dumping obsolete nuclear submarines for more than 30 years and that many were dumped with radioactive fuel supplies on board.

Greenpeace officials, who were given a copy of the report, believe it may now be too late to prevent the radioactive reactors contaminating the food chain. They believe humans will inevitably be affected through the consumption of fish.

It is believed that 20 nuclear reactors have been dumped in the Arctic Ocean and Sea of Japan. The authors point out that the disposal of radioactive waste was not a priority during the nuclear arms race between the former Soviet Union and the United States. 'The simplest solution was the disposal of waste in the seas,' it states.

John Large, a consulting nuclear engineer and advisor to Greenpeace welcomed the report. 'It is a disaster out there,' he said. 'The state of the Russian Navy is so disorganised. They have taken no account of this problem. They have been forced to dump radioactive waste at sea. Once it gets into the marine environment there are going to be real problems monitoring it in fish stocks.

'There is no doubt it will get out sooner or later. It will start leaking and once it does it cannot be vacuumed away. Russia does not have the capital or technology to make their nuclear submarines safe.'

"There's very little evidence of food in their GI [gastrointestinal] tracts or stomachs," said Anne Ballmann, with USGS's National Wildlife Health Center.

But they now are perplexed by the sheer numbers of dead birds and the spreading geographic extent of the die-off.

"Death at this level and over this much real estate has to be from more than just that," Parrish said.

By comparison, not one of the five largest U.S. bird mortality events tracked by USGS since 1980 is estimated to have topped 11,000 deaths. In Europe, according to the U.K.-based Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the worst die-off on record occurred in 1983, when 57,000 guillemots, razorbills, puffins, and other seabirds perished in the North Sea and washed up on the British coast.But I've never seen anything like this, ever, and I've been here since 1985."

On some beaches the Cassin's auklet death toll was a hundred times greater than any bird die-off ever tallied there, and six times worse per kilometer than the body count recorded after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska. On a single stretch of beach on Christmas Eve in Oregon, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Mike Szumski collected 250 carcasses—and left nearly as many behind.

But if the base of the food chain has changed, even temporarily, why is the die-off still limited to just one species of seabird?

"That's the thing that's so puzzling to us—we're just not seeing this with common murres or anything else," Parrish said.

YES, THEY DID SEE IT IN THE MURRES, AND SOON AFTERWARD! AWKS, PELICANS, PUFFINS, EVERY SPECIES OF SEA BIRD KNOWN HAS SHOWN UP DEAD OR DYING SINCE HE SAID THAT, FROM THE TIP OF SOUTH AMERICA ALL THE WAY UP TO THE ARCTIC CIRCLE...STARVED, NOT DYING OF SOME "PATHOGEN", BUT FROM FINDING NOTHING TO EAT IN THE DEAD PACIFIC! EVEN GEESE AND DUCKS ARE BEING FOUND EMACIATED, DISORIENTED, DEAD, DYING, ALONG THE COASTS AND INLAND!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150113-mass-die-off-disease-animals-environment-science/JANUARY 14, 2015 "Mass die-offs are individual events that kill at least a BILLION animals, wipe out over 90 percent of a population, or destroy 700 million tons—the equivalent weight of roughly 1,900 Empire State Buildings—worth of animals.Big die-offs can permanently change food webs. Ninety-nine percent of the sea urchin Diadema antillarum disappeared from the Caribbean in 1983 thanks to a pathogen. The herbivore's vanishing act paved the way for an algal invasion of reefs, smothering corals.

What's clear is that lack of coordinated attention from scientists is a problem, the study authors say. In fact, "at this time, the vast majority of [mass die-offs] are presented in newspapers," they write.

There needs to be better monitoring of these events, they say, since that's the only way we'll know how much trouble life on Earth is in.